Helvellyn - Lakes District

Weather - Cold, strong winds

Distance - 13kms 

Height of Mountain - 950m 

Time Departed - 9.50am

Time Arrived - 3.30pm

Accommodation - Thornthwaite Grange

Today Henk and I climbed England's third highest mountain, Helvellyn in the Lakes District. We have been wanting to climb this mountain for a number of years so we can now tick it off our "bucket list".

The forecast for the next two days was cloud down to 700 metres so when we set out we knew that we wouldn't be able to see very much when we got to Striding Edge and the summit of Helvellyn at 950 metres. 

We drove the thirty minute drive from our B&B at Thornthwaite to Glenridding which is the start of the walk. After buying lunch supplies we were soon on the path which quickly became quite steep. There were a number of walkers on the path and at the beginning of the climb we could see them way up high ahead of us. The last three hundred metres to the summit we could not see anyone because of the thick cloud but we could hear them in the distance. 

The walk can be divided into two sections - six kilometres of steep climbing and six kilometres of steep descending. 

The walk to Striding Edge before the summit was steep climbing over a rocky path. At 320 metres the wind started to become strong and cold but nothing like it was at the top. At 620 metres we started walking though cloud which became like thick pea soup at the top. The higher we climbed the colder it became. 

The final climb up to Striding Edge was relentless and steep and  at times we had to do some rock climbing. 

The challenge of Striding Edge is the very narrow long ridge path just before the summit. As the cloud was so thick we couldn't see how steep the drops were on either side which was a good thing. This is what it looks like on a sunny day. 

And this is what it looked like on our walk. I could barely stand with the strong winds. 

After completing the challenge of Striding Edge we needed to eat to keep up our energy. It was now 12.40pm and we had been going without a break since we started the climb. We found a spot out of the wind and had a fifteen minute break. We couldn't stay any longer as we were getting very cold.

After lunch we climbed higher over many rocky outcrops to get to the summit. It was freezing and the wind was fierce. A couple of guys climbing from Gracemere took our photo at the summit. We were very pleased to have made it.

We continued along the path to find the descent down Swirral Edge. We firstly missed the path but when we found it and descended about twenty metres we weren't sure we should do it. The conditions had deteriorated greatly and we decided to reclimb the twenty metres up the rugged rocks and go down the easier path to Gracemere. We would then catch a taxi back to Patterdale where our car was parked. We put on more layers of clothing to keep us warm. This took some time as our hands were very cold and we couldn't get them to work to do up the zips etc. 

As we were about to turn back some climbers came up Swirral Edge and confirmed we were on the right path and the path would soon become easier so we continued the steep descent down the rocky terrain through the thick cloud. 

After a couple of hundred metres of walking and descending the path did become easier and the wind decreased which made the walk a lot easier.

This was a challenging and exciting walk because of the steep rocky terrain, the cold, the thick cloud and windy conditions. We were very chuffed with ourselves that we had completed it and could tick it off our bucket list.